


Bruises, and Cuts, and the Sun

by RoyalAmphitrite



Category: Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Could be taken as platonic if you try hard enough, Don't expect much Roy, F/M, Multi, also the characterization may be off tread carefully, could also be taken as polyamory but just staying close to canon, mainly Kori/Jason, won't be satisfying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:14:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23290777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoyalAmphitrite/pseuds/RoyalAmphitrite
Summary: Just another one of those talks on the beach with Kori that Jason doesn't give much mind about. He doesn't care much about how green seems to just dive into him. No, he doesn't care at all about how dysfunctional it all is.
Relationships: Koriand'r/Jason Todd, Roy Harper & Koriand'r & Jason Todd
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	Bruises, and Cuts, and the Sun

There's just something about the way green dives into him, reaching and touching but not quite intruding, that makes Jason realizes he wants more than cuts and bruises.

Cuts. They're slices; tiny results of earthquakes in the skin that sting deep and confuse you. Are they coming from the inside or outside? Jason had never been able to tell, he's always stinging- has always been burned and fueled by that alcohol mixing with blood type of sting that comes from one place but vibrates throughout your entire body until you're left confused.

Bruises. They personally remind Jason of paint. Poorly pigmented paint that your parents purchase at the dollar store when you tell them you have a project coming up in art. Paint that's ugly when you put it on pure, white paper but means so much more when you pour your heart into it. A mess, but a mess with feelings and that's what every bruise on Jason's skin, littered from stubbed toes to dislocated shoulders, means to him.

Kori- green and orange and purple. Koriand'r the sunset says that emotions are abstract, sometimes you don't know they exist because they're hidden under things that hide them.

"Like bruises, for example." Her voice as soft and strong as a tweeting bird caresses the canal of his ears.

Her fingers, tan and thick and whatever- are lingering across a bruise that hangs on the side of his face. An unappealing purple-ish-yellow that stretches from his cheekbone to the underside of his jaw. She also knocks her left temple to his right, barely missing a thin line of open red that lies at the edge of his eyebrow.

Jason knows contact, physical contact, means much more to her than he understands so he sits patiently and tense but open. "And cuts." Hot breath dances past the hairs on his neck and he's more entranced than anything else. He doesn't know why.

"Bruises," sunny hands grasping his own pale ones', "hide softness. They look painful, but they would rather be recognized as tender. A tender that is similar to warmth, and happiness, and love." Jason doesn't wince like he thought he would.

"and cuts," she continues, "They are pain. Anger, grief." Starfire looks him in the eyes, "but then they heal. At the very least they scar and then they protect you. As they learned from their mistakes of being too soft."

It's silent for a while, Jason doesn't mind. He doesn't mind pouring his heart out while sitting atop rocks that sit atop sand. Or sometimes when she cries about a man she doesn't remember all that well, cries about people she forgets to recognize. Jason doesn't mind pretending he doesn't who they are.

He doesn't mind times without Roy, it's not uncomfortable. Sometimes moment likes these feel special, and he doesn't mind pretending they mean something.

"Ya'know," it's the first time he opened his mouth since he woke up. "I hate the sunrise."

Kori stares out into the sky, pretty purples and light pinks and soft oranges. Her eyes are curious in their nature. "And why, Jason, is that?"

Jason purses his lips and shrugs. "I…," he pauses, staring at the sky and hoping it would stare back, "I don't know. It just feels likes it's rubbing salt in the wound. Reminding everyone on earth that the sunset lied to them, and nothing is ever over. It all loud and bright and telling us we're all idiots for believing the day ended."

Kori hums and looks away from him. "…I believe the sunrise is begging for a pardon."

Jason raises an eyebrow.

"The sunset fooled us and so the sunrise is begging for our forgiveness; by looking better and trying harder than the sunset."

"It's kinda strange." Jason murmurs.

Kori responds. "What is strange?"

"I like to think that you're the sunset, but when you put it in the way you just did, maybe you're the sunrise."

Kori tilts her head, red hair pooling into a heap on the ground close to her feet. "Well, my powers derive from the sun either way. So, I suppose it-"

Jason stutters Kori by gently colliding his knee with her own. "No, that's not what I meant."

"...oh."

Jason glances at her before letting a smile creep up onto the edges of his lips. "Don't worry, Kor', I'll have Roy explain it later. He does that better than I can."

Kori snorts. "Yes, very much so. I recall you once trying to explain to me the difference between 'you're killing me' and 'you're killing me'." The deadpan is amazing.

Jason rolls his eyes. "It's pretty hard to do when you're having sex at the same time. The amount of blood in my brain decreases by ninety-nine percent."

"Speaking of that," he completely turns to face her, his eyebrows furrowed and right cheek indented. "Do you still feel the same way about-about sex and, love?"

Kori looks at him, really looks at him and he knows she sees the sincerity. He knows she knows he won't hurt her if he could help it.

"When I first came back, when you found me," her chin finds the middle of her left palm, "my mind was at it's worse. Nothing mattered. Everything was automatic, my feelings included…I meant what I said back then, but at the same time that was not who I should have been."

She leans a little closer. "I'm sorry."

Jason interprets. "You didn't use us. If anything we used each other. In the best way possible."

"Perhaps."

Jason ponders and asks one more time. "So, it matters now?"

She nods and a smile breaks through. "It matters now."

Jason leans away from her, his lips tingling with a kiss that never occurred. "We're weird."

"Weird?" Burnt mangos and stardust, if he knew what stardust smelled like he'd say that's what Kori embodies.

Jason runs a hand through his hair. "I've been through some fucked up shit, but not this kind. We're just weird fucked up. I mean, how do you even form a dysfunctional threesome?"

Kori stares at him, he can tell he lost her long, long ago.

A sigh and, "I will ask Roy."

"Good idea."

"Ask me what?" And then he comes out, battered just as badly Jason but still has enough energy to down an entire bottle of Moscato, which he was carrying.

Jason stares at the glass pointedly. Roy shrugs. "While not my favorite, Kori likes it."

And that's reason enough so Jason leans back and closes his eyes. This is definitely not something that will last forever, or even long, so he basks in niceness of it. The peace away from bats and brothers, blood and burned bridges, mistakes and debts to be paid.

"You look awful, Roy," Kori interjects through Roy's rambling nonsense.

"At least I look better than blue-eyed wreck over there. You look like shit, Jason." Roy decides to add, sipping from his drink.

"Thanks for the honesty, really," Jason's eyes crawl over to meet the aliens'. "Hey, Kori."

A warm hum.

"Speaking of cuts and bruises…," Roy looks between them curiously, "do you mind kissing my booboos goodbye?"

Kori knows that one, and Jason can't help the contentment he feels spread through every inch of his body when he sees white teeth shine through upward stretched lips.

This won't last long at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Please help me I have no idea what I’m doing. *screaming*  
> The funny thing is- I’ve been wanting to write Kori/Jason for years because I couldn’t find any, anywhere and it came out like this. It’s sad and unsurprisingly a disappointment, to me personally.  
> Also, in my weak defense, I haven’t read anything DC for a minute. My weak, weak defense.  
> Aight, thank y’all for reading, blah, blah, blah, have fun.


End file.
